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<TITLE>An Introduction to Scheme and its Implementation - Introduction</TITLE>
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<H1><A NAME="SEC8" HREF="schintro_toc.html#SEC8">Introduction</A></H1>

<P>
In this chapter, I'll give a quick overview of some basic features of
Scheme, enough to get started writing some programs.

</P>
<P>
This chapter moves fairly quickly, briefly introducing about half of the
ideas in Scheme.  In later chapters, I'll explain and demonstrate these
features more fully, and introduce other advanced features.

</P>
<P>
This chapter is meant to be read concurrently with the first half
of the next one, which includes a tutorial on using Scheme interactively.
I've put in directives saying when you should work through parts
of the next chapter.   After becoming familiar with Scheme, it will
serve as a basic reference;  you can consult the next chapter for
basic examples, and later chapters for advanced techniques.

</P>
<P>
If you're fluent in concepts of programming languages, and especially
if you've programmed in Lisp, you may be able to breeze through this
chapter to get a sense of what Scheme is about.  If you're fluent
in programming language concepts, you may be able to read straight
through this section.

</P>
<P>
<EM>(NOTE TO MY CS345 and CS386l STUDENTS: don't try to breeze
through this. Do the tutorial hunks after each hunk of this
chapter.---PRW)</EM>

</P>
<P>
If you intend to actually program in Scheme, you should definitely follow
the directives and read parts of the next chapter, rather than trying to
plow straight through this one.

</P>

<UL>
<LI><A HREF="schintro_9.html#SEC9">What is Scheme?</A>: What is Scheme?
<LI><A HREF="schintro_10.html#SEC10">Scheme Basics</A>: Basic Features of Scheme
<LI><A HREF="schintro_36.html#SEC38">Pairs and Lists</A>: Pairs and Lists
<LI><A HREF="schintro_46.html#SEC48">Recursion Over Data Structures</A>: Recursion Over Lists and Other Data Structures
<LI><A HREF="schintro_47.html#SEC54">Type and Equality Predicates</A>: Type and Equality Predicates
<LI><A HREF="schintro_51.html#SEC58">Quoting and Literals</A>: Quoting and Literals
<LI><A HREF="schintro_53.html#SEC60">Local Variables and Lexical Scope</A>: Local Variables and Lexical Scope
<LI><A HREF="schintro_60.html#SEC67">Procedures</A>: Procedures
<LI><A HREF="schintro_70.html#SEC77">Variable Binding Again</A>: Variables, Bindings, and Values       
<LI><A HREF="schintro_73.html#SEC80">Tail Recursion</A>: Tail Recursion
<LI><A HREF="schintro_74.html#SEC81">Macros</A>: Extending the Language
<LI><A HREF="schintro_75.html#SEC82">Continuations</A>: Continuations
<LI><A HREF="schintro_76.html#SEC83">Iteration Constructs</A>: Iteration Constructs
<LI><A HREF="schintro_77.html#SEC84">Introduction Discussion</A>: Discussion
</UL>

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